RWBY volume 7 Yang costume [WIP]

[johnnyjohnny]

I'm going to start this project out with a Yang!

I started watching RWBY just before Christmas, and seeing as my "scifi home office" is now complete, I've decided that a RWBY costume for this year's cons would be a great next project. I was hard put to decide between Yang (my favourite character) and Blake (the character that is probably most like me), as both of their volume 7 outfits look great and would easily be gender-bended. In the end, I just kept coming back to Yang, so here we go...

Here's pics of her latest outfit from volume 7. This has the Atlesian version of her "Ember Celica" right arm, with the left arm unit being the same across all volumes, from what I can see. (Thank you Rooster Teeth for publishing these panels! Though there is a lot of fan art out there, it's nice to have something directly from the source.)

The only differences that I'll be making to the costume to make it a little more "genderbent" is I'll be wearing a short-haired wig, and the white T-shirt will be a crew neck vs a tube top.

Off to the thrift shops....

 

[johnnyjohnny]

First thrift store outing proved successful, as I found a faux leather coat and some white shearling. Though Yang's jacket is more of a bolero-style bomber jacket, buying a longer coat provides me with some extra material to make the larger collar, leg band and two pouches. The coat is light, the material is thin which will make sewing easier, and already has a weathered appearance, so it works perfectly.

First thing to do was remove the faux fur liner. I'll keep this in my supplies for later use, as it's quite nice.

Next, I needed to cut it bolero-style. Luckily, there was a panel seam exactly in the right position, so I carefully removed the stiching, and cut down along the zipper. I probably won't use the zipper at all as it's a little dark.

I'll make the collar out of the material I removed, which will give me something more substantial to attach the shearling to.

 

[johnnyjohnny]

I also picked up a pair of Nerf Jolt pistols. These are some of the smallest nerf guns you can buy, and they can be made even smaller (the "nano Jolt mod") with some fabrication. These will fit nicely into the Ember Celica arm weapons (thanks go out to PKTek on YouTube), giving me a bit of shooting functionality.

 

[johnnyjohnny]

A couple more items arrived this morning - it's like a little Christmas!

First to make to my door - fingerless gloves (one is worn on the left hand). Now that I have the glove, I can take it to the fabric store and get a matching piece of fabric for the neckerchief. I already have a purple one for the right leg.

Second, a set of bib coveralls. My Blackberry KEYone camera sucks, and again the colour is way off. In reality, these are more brown than tan, and will require a re-dye. To get them looking proper, I'll first carefully remove all the pockets, loops and such that aren't correct, then wash it about 5 times to soften the cotton duck as much as possible. I'll do a bleach bath or two to lighten it, and finally, I'll dye it the correct grey/tan colour.

Once I've got the colour right, I'll cut the legs and bib, add zippers, the black-and-gold liner on the right leg, leg straps, and replace the suspender clasps with buttons or snaps.

 

[johnnyjohnny]

I find one of the more difficult aspects of creating a costume is finding the right footwear, especially finding women's boots/shoes that fit a guy. I had this problem with my ESB Darth Vader costume previously.

Luckily, Yang's boots didn't look to out-of-the-ordinary, and I found these over the weekend - womens size 11, and on clearance! Just had to replace the light brown laces with black ones, and Sharpie the sole black. The leather matches the jacket almost exactly, and all that's left to do is colour the eyelets gold and make the black fold-over cuffs.

I've removed all of the pockets and panels from the overalls that weren't needed, and am testing the bleach and dye to get the colour right. I only want to do this once so I'm being very careful to test and get it right.

 

[johnnyjohnny]

Found a pair of orange sunglasses that are quite close to the right shape. A little sanding here and there, paint the nose bridge, and apply a bit of curve with some heat, and they should look great..

My wig also came in - it's a 'RockStar Sassi Short' in light blonde. Depending on how the whole outfit looks together, I might end up tinting the hair a bit more golden. I'm not 100% sure if I'll wear this, or get a longer wig that better matches Yang's hair, since it's such a big part (pun intended) of her character.

 

[johnnyjohnny]

Not everything works out 100%...

After removing the extra pockets and knee panels, I bleached the overalls, then did a dye bath with grey RIT liquid fabric dye. It came out HORRIBLE - very blotchy and looked more dirty than grey/tan after it was dry. I quickly ran it through a RIT Color Remover treatment to try and get it all out. I'm not really sure what went wrong - I followed the instructions exactly, including tips from others. I think that the original fabric used had some chemicals on it, such as fabric softener or fire retardant.

The RIT Color Remover got most of it out, with the exception of one spot around the knee. I hope that this will be hidden with the purple neckerchief. I still need to re-dye it, as it's yellow right now. I did an additional 'scouring' wash with vinegar and baking soda to try and get the invisible chemical patches out. I'm going to try a higher quality fabric dye such as Procion MX and see how it goes.

 

[johnnyjohnny]

Finished up a couple of pieces today - the scarf and a custom belt. Once I have my 3d printer back up and running, I'll print out the belt buckle.

 

[johnnyjohnny]

Boots now have fold-over cuffs, and are done.

 

[johnnyjohnny]

...and I finished the "skirt" thing that goes over the belt. The outfit has a leather waist pouch that attaches to the skirt at the back. Hopefully I can find a small purse or something at a thrift store. Alternatively, it kind of looks like a case from a small binoculars, so I might check some of the local antique stores for something that would match.

A note on the trim colours. Many of the pictures of her outfit, and still frames from the series, show that the stripes on the belt and straps on the jacket are orange (matching the scarf), with the trim on the skirt and pants as gold. Other pics and stills look like they are all gold. I think the "official" colour is orange/gold, so that's what I've chosen; it also provides a bit of visual interest. Maybe if I meet the design team at a convention sometime I'll get this confirmed.

 

[johnnyjohnny]

Decided to just make the waist pouch myself.

I found a place in the US that sold these belts which match my outfit's belt, which will be re-purposed as jacket cuffs and arm straps.

I also ordered a pair of opera gloves, which will be the inner layer of the right cyborg arm/Ember Celica. All told, there are 5 layers for the right arm, most of which I'll make out of EVA foam.

 

[johnnyjohnny]

Jacket is almost complete, but I ran out of black/orange belt material for the remaining arm straps. I'm really pleased with how this came out, considering my very basic sewing skills. Props need to go out to my Brother sewing machine and the great manual that came with it!

 

[johnnyjohnny]

I've started working on the right cyborg arm, figuring out the layers and movement of the "real" arm and how this could be re-created in foam. The arm is actually quite a bit more complex than I first thought, based on stills I've captured. Looking at the 2 pictures on the left, there are 6 separate layers, if you include the inner glove. (for reference, the picture on the right is in the arm's retracted/casual position, and usually covered by the jacket - I'm not making this right now). In addition, the 3 layers that sit above the hand move *somewhat* independently of the rest of the arm, about 1/2 the distance that the actual hand moves. I haven't quite figured out how I will restrain the movement yet.

I've sewn a cut-up portion of a bi-polymer HPT glove (flexible non-slip coating) to the back of the full-length opera glove to give me the darker piece around the base of the thumb, and something to glue the 6mm foam piece on the back of the hand. I'll be using the same glove bits to make the indivual finger segments - dipping them in Plasti-Dip liquid yellow, cutting each to shape, and glueing them to the fingers of the opera glove. This is the only way I can think of that gives me a seamless set of segments including the finger tips (which are more like caps rather than tubes).

 

[johnnyjohnny]

After multiple dye jobs and a fair bit of sewing, overalls are finally done. At this point I don't think I'll do the folded down right leg (though it can be done, if I change my mind). I'm sure it would look good on a woman, but with my hairy chicken legs, not so much.

 

[Frogfreak]

After multiple dye jobs and a fair bit of sewing, overalls are finally done. At this point I don't think I'll do the folded down right leg (though it can be done, if I change my mind). I'm sure it would look good on a woman, but with my hairy chicken legs, not so much.

View attachment 1259451

hairy chicken legs you say? Well at the very least, you can just shave that one leg!

 

[johnnyjohnny]

Well, it's coming together nicely, and other than the right arm/left gauntlet, the costume is basically done.